With the prospect of tens of thousands of HIV positive people in its district needing medical help in the next few years, the tiny, 300-bed Hlabisa Hospital has turned its attention to encouraging people to care for terminally ill relatives at home.

The red ribbon pinned to his windbreaker is the first thing you notice. Then the wide smile, the huge, deep-sunken eyes and his incredibly frail body. Nkosi Johnson (11), touted for many years by the media as one of the longest HIV survivor in the country, is ill.

It’s like putting a man on the moon. They believed and knew they could do it. We believe and there is a firm scientific conviction that a vaccine against AIDS will be developed.” Dr Walter Prozesky, the driving force behind South Africa’s effort to find an AIDS vaccine, speaks this with “firm conviction”.

Professor Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia used to be a draw-card speaker at anti-apartheid rallies. Yet today he finds himself at odds with the very democratic government he fought so hard to install over its HIV/AIDS policy.

Professor Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia used to be a draw-card speaker at anti-apartheid rallies. Yet today he finds himself at odds with the very democratic government he fought so hard to install over its HIV/AIDS policy.